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Pensions are key to retaining overseas GPs

The new chair of the British International Doctors Association, Dr Shiv Pande, has called on the GPC to negotiate enhanced pension rights for overseas doctors in the new contract.

Dr Pande, a GP in Liverpool, said GPs who move to the UK to practise should be allowed to count their service in their home country towards their pension.

'Overseas doctors can't complete the 40 years to get the full NHS pension because they started late,' Dr Pande told Pulse. 'The service they did in their home countries should be considered. When we are trying to get more doctors we should give them better pension rights.'

He said the NHS saved £250,000 each time it recruited an overseas-trained GP. Around 1,000 older GPs would stay in practice past 60 if service overseas was counted, he added.

Dr Pande became chair of the association, formerly the Overseas Doctors Association, in October.